Guardians of Eden Read Online Free Page A

assured you the room wasn’t rigged with explosives; that you weren’t walking into a trap?” His anger was muted beneath his hoarse, rugged tone, but Owyn heard it loud and clear.
    Still not daring to open his mouth, Owyn stood in silence as Ambrose approached the mainframe’s console and did his work for him. “We’re patched in. Evac on the roof.” He brushed past Owyn’s shoulder and marched out. “Meet me for debriefing in an hour,” he said, not needing to turn around as he disappeared down the corridor.
    After standing petrified on the spot for a few moments longer, Owyn reluctantly plodded his way out. When he emerged O’Brien was sat up against the wall ahead of him running a cloth along one of her blades then holding it up to the light to examine the polish. Shaw, unsurprisingly, had already left for HQ, but Owyn was glad if anything – he could do without the mockery right now. Around the rest of the room Sergeant Major Tucker – leader of Charlie Squad – and his team were busily running the clean-up operation; shifting bodies and meticulously removing every lingering trace of the operation’s existence. Once they were done they’d have the job of fabricating a new crime scene from scratch, deflecting the blame far away from ISO and the rest of the military.
    With her helmet off O’Brien’s dull-brown hair was revealed, tied into a bun behind her head, and even now there wasn’t a trace of sweat running through it. At a glance she looked skinny and small, but her stature merely masked the thick undercoating of muscle running beneath her skin. She had cold grey eyes edged with a hint of green and what seemed like the same emotionless expression that had been plastered across her face for all of her life. Reading her was like staring hopelessly at a blank page, although Owyn had never had much interest in trying. He knew well enough that peoples’ backstories were often far from pretty. You were better off not trying to uncover what was bubbling beneath the surface.
    “How’d it go?” she asked, not offering to glance up from her blade.
    “Not a clue,” Owyn answered dismissively.
    “What did he say?” O’Brien asked again, looking for a more substantial response.
    Owyn diverted her away. “He’s debriefing me in an hour. We’d better get moving so I don’t piss him off any more.”
    “Alright,” she said, holding up her hands.
    “What’s with the concern anyway? It’s not like you to go for heart to heart talks.”
    She looked up with a puzzled expression. “A heart to heart talk. Is that what this is?” She rolled her eyes. “I dread to think what your love life was like.”
    “Pretty much none existent. I never had the time for it.”
    “I suppose we do have something in common after all, Carter.” She sprung to her feet then followed in Ambrose’ footsteps down the corridor, spinning her knife in her hand as she walked.
    Owyn stood for some time, gazing at the balconies above and quietly contemplating. Eventually, having concluded that his thoughts were getting him nowhere, he departed for the roof.
    With laboured strides Owyn approached the jet and clambered inside, before Sully ignited the engines and they lifted off.
    “How’d it go in there?” Sully asked, almost mimicking O’Brien exactly.
    “Just get us back to HQ, Sully.”
    Recognising Owyn’s shift of tone, Sully backed down and fell silent. Owyn lay back as best he could and closed his eyes, feeling the power of the engines vibrating through him as the jet cut through the atmosphere and moved into orbit. The next thing he knew was the siren song of the hanger doors as they arrived back at HQ.
    ISO was based on an orbital station far above the planet’s surface. It had seven decks and enough personal quarters to house a small army, although in reality the department had a little more than thirty personnel. Owyn had expected others to arrive the year after the first group had begun operations yet even